Opinion
Living in grace through Holy Communion. What a more fitting celebration to focus on than the Lord’s Supper as we remember His last meal on earth with His beloved disciples and the instruction to continue this Sacrament in His church for perpetuity.
There are many beliefs regarding Holy Communion, some of those beliefs ending up being deemed “cheap grace” because the bread and wine are of no significance in that belief structure.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer offers this definition, “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, (it is) baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal admission. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate."
The one thing that is for certain as we gather to celebrate the Lord’s Supper is the fact that Holy Communion is packed with power. Reality is, anything associated with grace is packed with power, the very power of God.
Luther refers to the sacrament of Holy Communion in many ways but all point to the same thing, the grace of God, the forgiveness of sin, the very presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.
The words of Jesus were a covenant, a new covenant, a promise from God Himself, and when God makes a promise, as we see everywhere in Scripture, He keeps the promise.
The promise here – this cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you for the forgiveness of sin. And when there is sin forgiven there is Grace present.
With that said, how can we not come to the Lord’s Table, especially on Maundy Thursday, and experience the miraculous presence of the One who invites us here?
How can we the people of Lake County not embrace the power of God’s love and forgiveness?
When we gather as one in Christ, miracles happen. We become a family working together to make our town something special.
God has plans for us, he shows us every day, every time we experience something that makes us feel uncomfortable or incomplete.
Join us Thursday at First Lutheran Church and be part of the process of renewal in Lucerne!
Worship on Thursday evening will be at 6 p.m. but come early because prior to the service, we offer a soup supper at 5 p.m.
Good Friday’s service is at noon and Easter Sunday we gather for Bible Study at 9:30 a.m., worship at 11 a.m., a hot Easter lunch following the service and then an Easter Egg hunt for the kids at 1 p.m.
Chris DelCol is pastor of First Lutheran Church in Lucerne, Calif. The church is located at 3863 Country Club Drive, telephone 707-274-5572.
There are many beliefs regarding Holy Communion, some of those beliefs ending up being deemed “cheap grace” because the bread and wine are of no significance in that belief structure.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer offers this definition, “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, (it is) baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal admission. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate."
The one thing that is for certain as we gather to celebrate the Lord’s Supper is the fact that Holy Communion is packed with power. Reality is, anything associated with grace is packed with power, the very power of God.
Luther refers to the sacrament of Holy Communion in many ways but all point to the same thing, the grace of God, the forgiveness of sin, the very presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.
The words of Jesus were a covenant, a new covenant, a promise from God Himself, and when God makes a promise, as we see everywhere in Scripture, He keeps the promise.
The promise here – this cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you for the forgiveness of sin. And when there is sin forgiven there is Grace present.
With that said, how can we not come to the Lord’s Table, especially on Maundy Thursday, and experience the miraculous presence of the One who invites us here?
How can we the people of Lake County not embrace the power of God’s love and forgiveness?
When we gather as one in Christ, miracles happen. We become a family working together to make our town something special.
God has plans for us, he shows us every day, every time we experience something that makes us feel uncomfortable or incomplete.
Join us Thursday at First Lutheran Church and be part of the process of renewal in Lucerne!
Worship on Thursday evening will be at 6 p.m. but come early because prior to the service, we offer a soup supper at 5 p.m.
Good Friday’s service is at noon and Easter Sunday we gather for Bible Study at 9:30 a.m., worship at 11 a.m., a hot Easter lunch following the service and then an Easter Egg hunt for the kids at 1 p.m.
Chris DelCol is pastor of First Lutheran Church in Lucerne, Calif. The church is located at 3863 Country Club Drive, telephone 707-274-5572.
- Details
- Written by: Pastor Chris DelCol
As we enter into Holy Week we can’t help but focus on living in grace by being humble just as Jesus humbled Himself.
We are forever reminded as Christians that the events of Holy Week are an example of what our lives in humility ought to be like.
We see that humility begin as Jesus enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday knowing the shouts of joy that day would turn to screams of hate and ultimately His death on Good Friday.
Clearly Holy Week was a humbling time for Jesus and an eternal example of our need to be humble in this world. With that said, what is it like to live humbly?
Real humility is bowing down and washing someone’s feet, or embracing a leper, or having a centurion of Roman stature accept the reality of God before him and seeking help that only Divinity could provide.
Perhaps humility is accepting the need to be a servant to all no matter what the cost, or maybe looking past the desire to accept glory or be prideful and instead turn it over to the only one who deserves it, or maybe offering forgiveness to someone of their sin in an effort to be like Jesus who forgave everybody.
In Lake County there are many ways to be humble.
The most important is by being a servant to the lowliest of the low and accepting of the fact that through this humility, we can do wonderful things – and do it all without expecting glory through of a prideful attitude.
You see, the problem with pride is that it puts you in opposition with God. There is only one who can receive glory, and when we try to steal some of His glory for ourselves, we commit the same sin that caused Satan to be cast out of heaven.
That’s why the Bible says that God did not choose the wise and the beautiful and those who had everything together to do His work.
He chose the weak, the poor, the sick because they understood the only way they could ever accomplish anything of any value would be through God’s power.
And so, whenever something good happened, they would naturally give all the glory to God. They get this from living in absolute humility, just as Jesus did.
With that said, what we need here in Lake County is:
– more servants and less pedestals;
– more you and less me;
– more give and less take;
– more laughter and less depression;
– more agape and less eros;
– more good and less evil
– simply, more Jesus and less Satan …
When you are on your knees, it is amazing what you see in front of you, beside you, and on top of you.
You see a county in desperate need of grace and you see a cross where we can get it.
We will dig deeper into this on Palm Sunday, March 25, so please join us for Bible study at 9:30 a.m., worship at 11 a.m. and a hot lunch immediately following the worship service.
All are welcome, so please come as you are.
Chris DelCol is pastor of First Lutheran Church in Lucerne, Calif. The church is located at 3863 Country Club Drive, telephone 707-274-5572.
We are forever reminded as Christians that the events of Holy Week are an example of what our lives in humility ought to be like.
We see that humility begin as Jesus enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday knowing the shouts of joy that day would turn to screams of hate and ultimately His death on Good Friday.
Clearly Holy Week was a humbling time for Jesus and an eternal example of our need to be humble in this world. With that said, what is it like to live humbly?
Real humility is bowing down and washing someone’s feet, or embracing a leper, or having a centurion of Roman stature accept the reality of God before him and seeking help that only Divinity could provide.
Perhaps humility is accepting the need to be a servant to all no matter what the cost, or maybe looking past the desire to accept glory or be prideful and instead turn it over to the only one who deserves it, or maybe offering forgiveness to someone of their sin in an effort to be like Jesus who forgave everybody.
In Lake County there are many ways to be humble.
The most important is by being a servant to the lowliest of the low and accepting of the fact that through this humility, we can do wonderful things – and do it all without expecting glory through of a prideful attitude.
You see, the problem with pride is that it puts you in opposition with God. There is only one who can receive glory, and when we try to steal some of His glory for ourselves, we commit the same sin that caused Satan to be cast out of heaven.
That’s why the Bible says that God did not choose the wise and the beautiful and those who had everything together to do His work.
He chose the weak, the poor, the sick because they understood the only way they could ever accomplish anything of any value would be through God’s power.
And so, whenever something good happened, they would naturally give all the glory to God. They get this from living in absolute humility, just as Jesus did.
With that said, what we need here in Lake County is:
– more servants and less pedestals;
– more you and less me;
– more give and less take;
– more laughter and less depression;
– more agape and less eros;
– more good and less evil
– simply, more Jesus and less Satan …
When you are on your knees, it is amazing what you see in front of you, beside you, and on top of you.
You see a county in desperate need of grace and you see a cross where we can get it.
We will dig deeper into this on Palm Sunday, March 25, so please join us for Bible study at 9:30 a.m., worship at 11 a.m. and a hot lunch immediately following the worship service.
All are welcome, so please come as you are.
Chris DelCol is pastor of First Lutheran Church in Lucerne, Calif. The church is located at 3863 Country Club Drive, telephone 707-274-5572.
- Details
- Written by: Pastor Chris DelCol
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